Suburban Bites: The 7 best places to eat in Bloomington

D'Amico-owned Parma 8200 is easily the best Italian restaurant in Bloomington. Treat your group to a lounge experience of cocktails and mix-and-match plates of high quality salumi and imported cheeses, pleasantly sour green grape gazpacho decorated with buttery Marcona almonds, and tuna carpaccio with shaved lardo. More ravenous diners and traditionalists will be very happy with Italian regional staples like arancini, penne alla vodka, and linguine with clams and white wine. The spacious dining room accommodates larger parties well and on Sundays they offer a killer date night special: three courses plus a bottle of wine for $50 per couple.

98 Pounds is the only Asian buffet location in the Twin Cities that gets the green light from our sushi snob friends. Right away it is clear that 98 Pounds is not treating the sushi offering as an embarrassing afterthought dropped right next to the heat-lamped egg foo yung. The rolls are frequently restocked by sushi chefs and situated prominently in the very center of the restaurant. Try to get a seat near there so you can see if the sushi chefs are making something delicious before they drop it in the serving area; the good rolls disappear moments after creation. The standard Chinese buffet in the back won't change any minds about Chinese buffets, but it doesn't disappoint either. Unless you are a crab leg enthusiast, skip dinner on the weekends -- the price point isn't worth it unless you eat a third of your body weight in seafood.

If you need motivation to get up and out of bed to drop someone at the airport for an early-morning flight, plan to treat yourself to a post-airport run on Sunrise Donuts, a bare-bones bakery that churns out textbook versions of donut shop greatest hits. Their old-fashioned donuts, the crunchy, charmingly misshapen, extra-rich cakey kind, are perhaps their best work, but Sunrise makes a fine raised glazed twist, cinnamon-scented apple fritters loaded with filling, and tart cherry bismarcks. We'd recommend getting coffee elsewhere, but for less than a dollar a donut, definitely plan to load up on everything else in the pastry case.

We Recommend

Wally's is good and is a Bloomington landmark (or at least their old location on 90th Street was), but Penn Lake Roast Beef is even better and you left it off the list. Also, where is Golden Wok or any of the megamall restaurants like Rainbow Cafe?

And no Shantytown!?!?!? An outrage! And what about Zeke's? Or any of the Gyro places?

The Green Mill? Seriously? Have you even been to Bloomington or did you just ask a few random strangers?

At least you got it right with Mandarin Kitchen & 98 Pounds. Both of those places rock.

Sorry but the Green Mill in Bloomington is GARBAGE. I was there 2 days ago. Standard Green Mill food, but old and stale with terrible service. I actually do not find the fact that it is in a hotel a feature ... you walk in, and it smells like pool chlorine. Do not love.

Seriously??? Where's Gyropolis? That is hands down the best restaurant in Bloomington! Hunan & Golden Wok and 1st Wok and David Fongs are all better than Mandarin or 98 pounds! Surabhi & Tandoor.... Oh, my City Pages, you seriously botched this one bad!

A pretty good list. But one entry doesn't make sense. They send you to Green Mill to find a fake townie bar inside a Holiday Inn, when the genuine townie bar down the street, Shantytown Grill, doesn't get mentioned. Other noticeable omissions: Kincaid's, David Fongs, Gyropolis -- all Bloomington originals.

This series is just making City Pages look bad. Clearly your "writer" has never even been to half the places written about; (s)he is also pulling them straight off the top of Google Search. Seriously, please stop. You are not doing any of these businesses or any of these cities any favors with your patronizing articles that mention places like Green Mill as one of the 7 best places to eat at. Not that Green Mill is bad, but they are in almost every city, so it's really just insulting. If you can't find 7 legitimately unique places for each city, write a shorter article or don't write it at all.

India Cafe, Tandoor, and Blue Point Grill (GREAT happy hour) are also critical omissions. Green Mill? Really? It's not terrible but there are plenty other non-chain options exclusive to Bloomington that are way better.

The Gyros Grill on Old Shakopee near Cedar is my absolute favorite in Bloomington. The chicken curry special is awesome and they make their own spicy chutney-like condiment that is out of this world. There is no contest between the food at Gyros Grill and the Green Mill.

Sunrise Donuts gets a thumbs up from me, but you left out David Fong's and Gyros Grill on Old Shakopee Road. Gyros Grill is a locally-owned restaurant with about 15 tables and one or two people working behind the counter. Imad is one of the most appreciative business owners I have ever had the pleasure of frequenting until I left my job close to his business. Go pay him a visit.